The Mississippi State men’s basketball team opens its 2008-09 campaign at 2 p.m. Saturday against Centenary College and faces Louisiana-Monroe Monday at 7 p.m.
Head coach Rick Stansbury will have his youngest team in years with only one senior and eight freshmen and sophomores expected to get significant minutes.
The Centenary Gentlemen were chosen last in the 10-team Summit League in the preseason coaches and media polls. Gentleman basketball has struggled in recent seasons, having finished ninth or last each year since 2003. Centenary has never made the NCAA basketball tournament.
Centenary returns three starters from last year’s team. Senior guard Nick Stallings lead the team in points with 16 and minutes per game with 34.4 each outing. Senior forward Lance Hill collected 11.7 points per game and was the Gentlemen’s best three point shooter last season, hitting 45.2 percent from beyond the arc. Junior guard Chase Adams averaged 4.7 assists per game.
Centenary head coach Greg Gary tabbed Stallings and Adams as some of the best guards in the Summit League.
“I thought Chase Adams and Nick Stallings might get on one of the preseason teams,” Gary said.
Monday’s opponent, the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, also struggled last season. Following a 2006-07 campaign where ULM finished first in the Sun Belt West, 2007-08 resulted in last place in the Sun Belt. The Warhawks return two starters and only seven lettermen from last season.
Senior guard Tony Hooper managed 15.1 points per game last season and will organize the Warhawk offense. Senior forward Afam Nweke averaged 6.2 rebounds per game last season.
MSU comes into the weekend following two exhibition wins over two-time NAIA champion Oklahoma City University and NCAA Division II Elite Eight team, Montevallo.
“I thought it looked like we were in quicksand the other night,” Stansbury said of the team’s performance against OCU. “We didn’t do some things as well as I would like us to have done. The best thing is that with three minutes to go, we dug in and showed some grit. We found a way to win.”
MSU will be without freshmen Jacquiese Holcombe and Twany Beckham Saturday. Beckham is out with a foot sprain and Holcombe had screws removed from his knee in a follow up surgery to a previous injury.
“He should only miss a couple days,” Stansbury said.
Sophomore guard Riley Benock said his team knows what areas it needs to improve.
“We have had two tune up games. We have a better idea of what we need to work on,” Benock said. “We are always looking for transistion buckets.”
MSU returns NCAA defensive player of the year, Jarvis Varnado. In the two exhibition games, Varnado tallied 29 points, 25 rebounds and 16 blocks.
“We have to pick up our defense and share the ball better,” Varnado said. “We can’t take any team lightly, we didn’t come ready to play against Oklahoma City and they almost beat us. This year we are more of a team.”
Stansbury said his team will look to its lone returning senior, forward Brian Johnson, for experience and offense.
“He has done a good job for us. I think he is very skilled, but what we have not seen yet is that he is a good scorer, too,” Stansbury said. “The ball is not going to the paint enough yet. If you are going to win, the ball has to get into the paint one way or another.”
Stansbury said his team faces a special challenge due to the importance its opponents place on the games.
“A lot of these teams coming in here will have one of their biggest games of the year, playing an SEC school,” Stansbury said.